Champions have been crowned in all classes and with this last round, the underlying story will be the team/rider changes and the off season testing to follow race day. 5th place is still pretty close with AB, VR and CC in the mix.

I hope VR doesn't take long to get back into his groove on the M1 so he can give Lorenzo a run for his money. Predictions for the Valencia podium?

I'm sure VR along with others who went to different teams will spend majority of the off season testing and setting up their bikes for the 2013 season. New riders, new bikes, new mechanics, there's not gonna be any rest for them.

Stoner wants to go out on top. Again, his adage of winning races, not championships will come in to play.

Pedrobot has some face to save after that relatively unforced error last week. His "ambition outweighed his talent" briefly comes to mind as a chuckle, but we all know he was under pressure from Casey, Lorenzo and the championship as a whole.

Jorge has nothing to lose but injury. I just don't think he will want it enough after already sealing the championship to push against Stoner/Pedrosa.

gonna be an emotional race for Stoner, and Rossi. As for Dani im sure he would love nothing more than winning the last race. Lorenzo, love em or hate him, you gotta tip your hat to the guy for having an amazing season, very consitant, end of the day he earned it

Stoner wants to go out on top. Again, his adage of winning races, not championships will come in to play.

Pedrobot has some face to save after that relatively unforced error last week. His "ambition outweighed his talent" briefly comes to mind as a chuckle, but we all know he was under pressure from Casey, Lorenzo and the championship as a whole.

Jorge has nothing to lose but injury. I just don't think he will want it enough after already sealing the championship to push against Stoner/Pedrosa.

Could be completely wrong, but meh.

I think Jorge has been riding safe last few rounds, now that the championship is wrapped up he can go for it. I'm expecting a battle with him and Stoner.

I hope VR doesn't take long to get back into his groove on the M1 so he can give Lorenzo a run for his money.

I just don't see it happening at this point in his career. I know Rossi still has the ability to race at the front of the field but over the last two seasons Jorge has really matured. His ability to take 1st or 2nd in every race on a new machine was amazing. I think we'll see a role reversal in Vale's career now where the pressure will be on him. Too see if he still has what it takes to keep up with Jorge.

For Repsol Honda Team’s Stoner this will be his last race before he heads to pastures new as he retires from the sport after the chequered flag on Sunday. Having made up his mind for some now, the Australian commented that his feelings have not changed: “There is to a certain degree [mixed feelings], but like I’ve said in the past this isn’t something I’ve just decided a month ago. I’ve known for a long time that this was going to be my last race. There aren’t too many emotions going on, we know what our decision means, so we’re going into this race like we are in the last races, to do our best at the moment, and see how we feel after the last race. Of course the feeling is a little bit different going into this race, not fighting for a championship, and we’re not looking to next season, so there are different feelings I suppose, to what I’m used to in the past. But in general we still feel pretty good for this race, and we won’t know until Monday how I feel.”

For Ducati Team’s Rossi this is also a milestone, as the Valencia race will be his last on a Ducati before his return to Yamaha: “Yes, it will be the last race with Ducati, and for sure we’re arriving at the end of this story between us, that unfortunately never gave good performance, or the level we expected. It will be difficult on Sunday because after you work for a long part of the year with the people, and you then have to stop and change teams. It will be very emotional. Even if the result was not fantastic, we had a good time together outside of the track, and we tried the maximum.” He also pledged to keep doing so for the last race, yet is also looking forward to his first test with Yamaha on Tuesday: “We will see and we will try to do the best for this last race with Ducati. It will be very interesting on Tuesday morning to understand which level I can have with the M1 and what the feeling is after two difficult seasons.”

that's quite funny, I hope he can gel with that bike quickly next year, I had a major "oh f**k" moment when he went to ducati. my bro thought it was going to be epic, "the best italian rider on a beast of an italian bike", as he said. too bad the bike was a pig even when stoner was on it, he just kicked its a$$ more effectively.

lorenzo is fast & obviously very talented, but he isn't the personality he thinks he is. for example, WTF was that "viper" crap early in the season? & I wonder if we'll see the "spaceman" celebration for a 3rd time next year.

I really hope next year is a bit more exciting, I don't tune in to see pedrosa 5 secs clear at the front, lorenzo playing safe in 2nd & the rest just making up the numbers.

as for this race, I can't say I'm that bothered about it, my eyes are on the testing. rossi on the M1, marquez on the honda, spies & dovi on dukes, should be very interesting

Just a big "what if" scenario I thought of but what if Rossi in 2013 starts to have the same luck that Spies had with malfunctioning parts? Conspiracy theorists would go nuts.

I don't know, from what I seen and this is only my opinion and thoughts, is that Spies wasn't ready for this type of racing and he simply choked when it came race time. Sure there might have been a few issues with the bike but looking at every race how do you explain a first row start, amazing lap times during practise and qualifying and then come race time something goes wrong with the bike? Mmm I think it was rider error and too much for him to handle.

Also Rossi is bringing over some of his team which was with him at Yamaha before so they're going back to a bike that they have worked on before.

A few issues? First race in Qatar he had a cracked subframe, then the engine blowing up in Indy, swing arm breaking at Seca, tires were shredded beyond ride able condition in Assen, overheated brakes in Motegi. That's just off of the top of my head.

He was in second place at Indy when his motor blew up as well, so it's not like he rode out there half-assed. The team has nothing to do with the parts given to him. They just tune the bike to the best of their abilities.

Ok without no one getting their jimmies russled lets have a normal discussion haha.

It's the techs job to tune the bike to rider, track, weather ect. to their best ability with parts provided. But it's also their job to inspect the bike and parts, so who's fault would it be that he went out with a broken sub frame? As for the tires, again during testing the techs should have seen different ware patterns and premature ware, maybe go with a different compound and say "hey something's up you are really hard on tires on this track" I doubt he was given faulty tires as a conspiracy.

However if these misfortunes continue with Rossi in the seat people will maybe start to question and come up with a conspiracy like you said, just look at the accusations against Marquez.

Ok without no one getting their jimmies russled lets have a normal discussion haha.

It's the techs job to tune the bike to rider, track, weather ect. to their best ability with parts provided. But it's also their job to inspect the bike and parts, so who's fault would it be that he went out with a broken sub frame? As for the tires, again during testing the techs should have seen different ware patterns and premature ware, maybe go with a different compound and say "hey something's up you are really hard on tires on this track" I doubt he was given faulty tires as a conspiracy.

However if these misfortunes continue with Rossi in the seat people will maybe start to question and come up with a conspiracy like you said, just look at the accusations against Marquez.

Just because the parts failed during the race doesn't mean there wasn't underlying problems with them during practice/qualifying. It also doesn't mean that those problems were easily or able to be identified by the techs/mechanics. Tire wear can't be measured once the race starts but from the rider(maybe they did choose a different compound and the issues persisted). There's no bike to garage communications other than a pit board and they'd have to have high speed cameras on the tires to properly gauge any visible wear during the race. The motor blowing up was probably just bad luck, I don't know how many races/laps they had on it.

Even the commentators throughout the season were talking about his bad luck more than his choking. It seemed like the failures always happened when he was being competitive and pushing for podiums/points. He did just fine a couple years before on the tech3 machine and even last year with four(I think) podiums.

No one is saying it was a conspiracy, at least not openly, but Spies definitely has the skill to be competitive at this level. At least as much as any of the non-top 3 do. It is just extremely rare to see someone have so many mechanical failures over the course of a season.

wow, one of the craziest races ive seen, wet, dry crashes, pitting before the race, Grats to Dani for the win!! if only he hadnt gone down in Aus :( Wicked high side from Lornezo, glad to see he got up though. And a fond farewell to Casey Stoner!! you will be missed on the grid my friend, best of luck to you and your family. His leathers today ;)

So is "vicissitudal" a word that can be used in this manner? I want to look smart at work tomorrow.

Watching Vale just jump off the Duc without a backward glance pretty much summed up this lousy year. And a test rider winning second place....well you just never know how this pie is going to turn out. I am looking forward to Tuesday.

"Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner exchanged their helmets today at Valencia before Casey’s departure. A beautiful way to remember their battles on track!"

However, the Australian rider promised to be back next year, although the other riders can relax.

Stoner: “I'm sure I'll be back to visit a race or two next year, maybe I'll chose a wet and cold race so that I can enjoy watching all the riders line up for the race, whilst I'm sipping on a nice cup of tea in the back of the garage…”